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Disappearance of London Police Mural at Cork N Bottle Angers Friends of Artist Who Died Sunday

UPDATE (Wednesday 7:46 a.m.): Maker's Mark joined the controversial conversation over the mural on Tuesday when its corporate Facebook page commented at Cork N Bottle's page that the whiskey brand had not heard of the mural until that moment. If there were any potential copyright infringement concerns, it would appear that those concerns originated at Cork N Bottle, which apologized for removing the mural and made a donation to the American Cancer Society in the name of the Covington business owner who brought the mural artists to town and died a day before the mural was removed.

Meanwhile, the BLDG, the company founded by Mike Amann, the artist who died Sunday, accepted Cork N Bottle's apology:

We just had an excellent meeting with Tim Hue from Cork N Bottle issuing a formal apology along with a gracious $1,000 donation to the American Cancer Society on behalf of Mike Amann.

We fully accept this apology along with Tim's eagerness to correct the situation. We will be working with Tim and Cork N Bottle on replacing the mural in a timely fashion.

Also, we would like to state that the unfortunate timing of the event was in no way intended to be malicious or insensitive in any way.

Thank you Cork N Bottle for doing the right thing for the City of Covington and our community.

UPDATE (Tuesday 3:26 p.m.): Cork N Bottle has now softened its stance on what led to the mural's removal with another post to its Facebook page, which has been hammered for nearly twenty-four hours with outraged fans of the mural and customers of the long-running business:

We understand and sincerely regret the hurt that the removal of the art mural has caused our community. We acted out of a concern of a Maker’s Mark copyright violation – which we feared might affect our relationship with a key supplier. We certainly had no intention of offending The London Police - Official, BLDG or the community who had come to appreciate and enjoy the mural. We have been a part of this community for 50 years and as always, wish to work in the best interest for our community's development and growth. We regret the loss of this piece of art, and thank you for your comments and your enthusiasm for Covington. We too share your passion for our neighborhood and love being a part of this community. In furtherance of our sincere apologies, Cork 'N Bottle has made a donation in the name and memory of Michael T. Amann to The American Cancer Society. We invite others to join us.

The London Police mural was removed from our building at 501 Crescent Ave. yesterday. The reasons for this are that the contract to have it painted was unauthorized and the image was an infringement on the Maker’s Mark trademarked bottle image. Please look for new art coming this spring as a new mural is being properly contracted.

ORIGINAL POST (Monday 9:30 p.m.):

One of the murals put up in Covington by international artists The London Police has been painted over.

That move has led to much anger being directed at Cork N Bottle on Crescent Avenue where the mural disappeared on Monday.

The London Police were brought to Covington by the BLDG, a creative agency on Pike Street founded by Mike Amann who passed away Sunday a after battling stage four high-grade neuroendocrine cancer. He was in his early thirties. (Read about Amann on the Livestrong blog)

"The idea is to create a public art project promoting unique places in Covington to build visibility and drive traffic to them," Amann said at the time.

His partners at the BLDG expressed their outrage at Cork N Bottle's decision, on Facebook:

Huge loss in Covington today. Cork 'N Bottle decided to paint over their The London Police - Official mural today. Let us state that the agreement of the mural being painted on the building was that the painting would be up for at least a year after completion. I can surely tell you that. From this point forward, we will surely only shop at The Party Source for all our spirits!

Various comments opposing the decision were posted to Cork N Bottle's Facebook page but were later removed. The company had not publicly addressed the reason for the mural's removal as of this writing. Supporters of the mural and Amann also took to social media to express their outrage and vowed to shop elsewhere.

Cork N Bottle has been in business in Northern Kentucky since 1964.

In addition to a mural on that Crescent Avenue building, The London Police also created an image of Amann wearing a jersey from the Covington Blue Sox, the short-lived professional baseball team that represented the city in the Federal League in 1913. That mural is on the side of Covington Arts on Seventh Street:

Photo at top of article: The mural removed from Cork N Bottle on Monday